Talk Series | Yann Toma - Artistic energy

His projects experiment with a redistribution of Artistic Energy (AE) between artist and society. He places his work and reflection at the frontier of artistic and civic expression. He puts it in the context of current political and media events. Both artist and life president of the Ouest-Lumière company, he has been developing the Artistic Energy (AE) concept since 1991. Since 1991, he has reinvested the reactivated memory of the former Ouest-Lumière electricity company to create a symbolic network dedicated to producing and disseminating artistic energy. Yann Toma is involved in issues of climate change and energy, in which the artist engages in processes of revelation and takes a stand with his body, making contact with certain hidden and open senses that the public itself can pick up on but which it continually loses sight of as a result of its conditioning, notably by failing to perceive the masses of natural influxes that ensure our relationship with nature. He is also a co-founder of the Maximalism movement. His works, held in prestigious collections such as the Centre Pompidou and the Neuflize’s Bank, question the notion of energy, the impact of art on society, and the importance of ethics. His projects involve a shared production process, with the public playing a crucial role in generating the artwork and redistributing energy between artist and viewer. Among Yann Toma’s experimental project of redistribution of Artistic Energy between artist and society are Dynamo-Fukushima (Grand Palais, 2011), Human Energy ( Tour Eiffel, December 2015), Human Greenergy (Forbidden City Bejing, October 2016), Planet Energy (Saatchi Gallery, 2023), Polarities (New York) & A Light-World (Paris, 2024).

Yann Toma is a professor at Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne University and researcher at Institute of Arts Creation Theory and Aesthetics (ACTE), director of Master in Arts and Vision (MAVI), and co-director of Master of Art & Innovation Management program (School of arts – School of management). He is a coordinator of multiples research projects and listener at Institut des Hautes Etudes par les Sciences et la Technologie (IHEST).

The Talk Series program brings the flourishing ideas and diverse practices within the international contemporary art scene to the Icelandic art community and the public at large. Each guest is asked to offer an insight into the field through a public lecture at the Reykjavik Art Museum, studio visits and a seminar lecture at the Department of Fine Art as well as an introduction to the Icelandic art scene through visits to practicing artists studios and the gallery and museum scene. The overall aim of the program is to support a stronger link between local aspects and broader perspectives of contemporary art. By joining the resources of three major local art institutions the wish is to convey current topics of art to both younger and established artists, art students and the general public alike.

Supported by the French Embassy in Iceland. The talk is in English.